BICENTENNIAL TIMELINE

1794
1795
1796
1797

1794
January 13 Kentucky and Vermont join union
January 16 Death of English historian and scholar, author of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
February British Gov. of lower Canada promises Indians return of their lands in NW Territory if they will join in war with U.S.
February 4 Abolition of slavery in the French colonies
March Part 1 of "The Age of Reason" appears in London and Paris
March 14 Eli Whitney patents cotton gin
March 22 U.S. bans slave trade with foreign nations
April 19 John Jay, Chief Justice of Supreme Court, appointed to negotiate commercial treaty with England
April Execution of Danton and Desmoulins by guillotine in Paris
April - July Toussaint Louverture turns on his Spanish allies in Haiti and joins the French
May 1 First trade union (Federal Society of Journeyman Cordwainers) organized in Philadelphia
May Connecticut Assembly votes to repeal Appropriation Act to commit funds from sale of western lands to support of clergy
May Bill to abolish slavery after April 1, 1795 introduced in Connecticut Assembly; (rejected in October)
May 8 The United States Post Office is established
June 5 Congress passes Neutrality Act
June 2000 warriors assemble in new British Fort Miami on the Maumee
Summer Henry Wansey publishes a journal of an excursion to the US
June Yellow Fever epidemic begins at New Haven, continues for two years
June 26 Treaty with the Cherokee Nation
Late June Anthony Wayne builds Fort Recovery on site of St. Clair's defeat
July 28 French revolutionary, Maximilien Robespierre dies; marks end of the Terror in France
July 29 Richard Allen establishes the first African Methodist Episcopal Church, Mother Bethel
July Whiskey Rebellion breaks out among backwoods farmers in the Monongahela Valley of Western Pennsylvania
August Jacques-Louis David, arrested just after Thermidor, taken to the House of Detention at the Hotel des Fermes; paints "Self-Portrait" and "View of the Luxembourg Gardens"
August 20 Anthony Wayne defeats Western Indians at Battle of Fallen Timbers
September Yellow Fever epidemic in Baltimore
September 13 John Cleves Symmes receives patent for his purchase in Southern Ohio (including Cincinnati)
September 30 - October 19 President Washington leads militia into Western PA
September 24 Washington Proclamation suppresses Whiskey Rebellion
October 22 Anthony Wayne officially opens Fort Wayne
November Timothy Dwight preaches Thanksgiving sermon defending the Appropriations Act
November 11 Treaty with the Seneca and Six Nations at Canandaigua
November 19 Jay's Treaty provides for withdrawal of British forces from the Northwest Territory by June 1, 1796
December Timothy Pickering confers with Oneidas, Tuscaroras, Stockbridges to get land for veterans of the War of the Revolution
December

Cheshire town meeting votes against the sale of the Western Reserve

English developers extend Mohawk Turnpike as far as Avon, New York
61 mile macadam Philadelphia-Lancaster Turnpike completed
Canal constructed at S. Hadley Falls, MA
David Austin edits "The Millennium, Elizabethtown," predicts transformation will occur in 1796
Thomas Jefferson tests his Moldboard plow
John Dalton provides a scienitific description of color blindness
Neutrality Act forbids U.S. citizens to serve in the military forces of foreign countries
Thaddeus Kosciusko leads the unsuccessful, Uprising of 1794, against Russian and Prussians
Claude Chappe, French Engineer, invents the semaphore optical telegraph, a device for communicting via visual signals
"Elements of Geometry", by French Mathematician Adrien-Marie Legendre, publishes, becoming the standard geometry text throughout Europe and North America for 100 years

First Bank of the United States is founded under Alexander Hamilton and is granted a 20-year charter

Timothy Dwight writes the poem, "Greenfield Hill"
Louis-Léopold Boilly paints "Triumph of Marat"
Gilbert Stuart, an American, paints John Jay, Catherine Brass Yates
Death of Robert Burns, Scottish Poet
William Blake produces the "Songs of Experience"
Gov. Carondelet builds a canal to drain the city of New Orleans and open a route to the sea
1795
January Yazoo land companies buy 35 million acres (most of Alabama and Mississippi)
March 3 French settlers at Gallipolis receive a grant of land from Congress, but most refuse to move
March 9 Napoleon marries Josephine de Beauharnais
April 7 Metric System is adopted in France
May Resolution authorizing sale of Western Reserve
June 5 Committee appointed to sell Connecticut's Western lands convenes at Hartford
August Connecticut's Western Reserve (minus the Firelands) goes up for sale in Hartford
August 3 Treaty of Greeneville; Wayne + 12 Ohio tribes: U.S. boundary at Cuyahoga; Indians dependent nations
August 12 John Livingston and associates agree to withdraw from bidding on Connecticut Reserve in return for right to bid on any excess land over 3,000,000 acres
September 2-8 Winning bidders post $1,200,000 in bonds for the Western Reserve
September 5 58 investors adopt Articles of Association as Connecticut Land Company and join in a deed of trust
September 5 U.S. agrees to tribute to the Barbary pirates, ransoms 115 seamen
October Digging of the Middlesex Canal begins
October 14 Sale of the Connecticut Western Reserve minus the Fireland is announced
October 29 Capt. Ebenezer Dorr enters Monterey Bay; first to sail California Coast
November 15 Suspension of diplomatic relations between U.S. and France due to Jay's treaty with Britain
December 7 Adams and Jefferson are elected President and Vice President of United States
December 10 Washington reorganizes cabinet to include only Federalists; Timothy Pickering becomes Secretary of State
December 17 Israel Ludlow establishes Hamilton and lays out streets of Dayton, Ohio
First (wooden) railroad in U.S. - Boston, Beacon Hill
Jeremiah Halsey of Preston contracts to complete Hartford Statehouse in return for New York Gore tract
Asher Benjamin designs and supervises first curved staircase in Connecticut for Hartford Statehouse
First insurance company in U.S. incorporated (Mutual Assurance of Norwich)
Timothy Dwight leaves Greenfield Hill to become President of Yale
Four turnpike companies incorporated in Connecticut; six authorized; eight ordered surveyed
Joseph Bramah invents the world's first hydraulic press
U.S. Naturalization Act makes five-year residency a requirement for U.S. citizenship. Members of the nobility who entered the U.S. are required to give up their titles
Treaty of San Lorenzo between Spain and the U.S. establishes a Florida boundary and gives U.S. right of navigation on the Mississippi River
American, Robert Fulton, patents the first power-shovel for digging canals
The Netherlands, occupied by the French, reconstitutes as the Batavian Republic
All of Poland divides among Russia, Prussia, and Austria in the Third Partition
British conquers Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from the Dutch
Charles Hutton publishes "A Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary"
Haydn completes the 12 London symphonies
Apsolum Jones appointed deacon and priest of African Methodist Episcopal Church
 

1796
January Oliver Ellsworth of Windsor, CT appointed Chief Justice of Supreme Court
January G.C. Cuvier delivers a paper distinguishing mammoths from elephants, beginning the science of Comparative Zoology
January 5 Death of Gov. Samuel Huntington of Connecticut; first President of the Continental Congress
February Pickering letter to Six Nations proposes Quaker plan to develop agriculture
February 6 Anthony Wayne's triumphant return to Philadelphia
February 13 New Georgia legislature invalidates Yazoo land sale by previous corrupt state legislature
February 17 Kittera of PA proposes 5 mile grid for U.S. Military District
February 20 Edward Savage advertises the Washington family as the main attraction at the Columbian Gallery, his private museum in Philadelphia
March 15 Treaty of San Lorenzo with Spain endorsed by Senate; U.S. rights on the Mississippi, boundary of Florida established
April-May Napoleon assumes command in Italy; defeats Austria
April 5 Connecticut Land Company adopts five square mile grid for partition of Western Reserve
April 8 April 8 William Hull purchases the right to the Excess lands from John Livingston for $50,000
April 8 Connecticut Land Company appoints Moses Cleaveland (one of their Directors) as general agent to supervise the survey
April 24 Death of George Wyllys (86), ending 66 years as Secretary of State of Connecticut in which he never missed a legislative session
April 28 Fisher Ames oratory sways House to support appropriation to carry out Jay'sTreaty
May - October Connecticut Land Company survey (first season) of Western Reserve; five-mile township grid
May Surveyors leave Connecticut for Western Reserve
May 5 Augustus Porter at Albany, outfitting the survey
May 17 Congress adopts five mile township grid for U.S. Military District survey
May 18 Land Act of 1796 mandates survey of all public land in NW territory, sale for $2 per acre, six-mile township grid
May First legislative session held in new Statehouse at Hartford
May 31
June 1 Tennessee statehood (16th State) as a slave-holding state
June 20 Oliver Phelps (at Canandaigua) writes to Moses Cleaveland advice on treating with the Iroquois chiefs
June 21 Seth Pease visits Niagara Falls; Milton Holley camps on Grand Island; treaty begins
June 21-24 Red Jacket, Joseph Brandt and other Seneca meet CLC surveyors in treaty at Buffalo Creek
June 22 The surveyors assemble at Buffalo Creek to meet the Iroquois chiefs
June 23 Connecticut Land Company treaty with Six Nations concludes
June 23 Farmer's Brother, Red Jacket, Little Billy and Green Grasshopper dine with the Connecticut Land Company commissioners (Red Jacket lectures on religion)
June 26 Death of David Rittenhouse
June 27 Connecticut Surveyors leave Buffalo Creek
June 29 Treaty with the Creek Nation
July 4 Independence Day; Connecticut Surveyors discover Ellicott's line and "arrive at the confines of New Connecticut"
July 7 Milton Holley, Augusts Porter, Seth Pease and five others head South about 5 rods West of the Pennsylvania line
July 10 Moses Cleaveland begins exploration of the Lake Erie shore, looking for a harbor
July 10 Oliver Phelps leaves Canandaigua for Suffield, writing a letter to Moses Cleaveland
July 11 Americans occupy Detroit following withdrawal of British forces from their frontier posts under Jay's Treaty
July 22 Moses Cleaveland arrives at Cuyahoga, site of city to bear his name
July 23 Augustus Porter sets chestnut post to mark SW corner of the Reserve
August 5 Moses Cleaveland writes Moses Cleaveland that he has still not made up his mind where to place the capitol city
August 20 Chillicothe founded by Nathaniel Massie in Virginia Military District
September 16 Milton Holley begins to lot the east part of "Cuyahoga town" (Cleveland)
September 19 Washington's Farewell Address
September 30 Moses Cleaveland agrees to sell a township (later Euclid) to the surveyors for $1 per acre
October Bezaleel Wells and James Ross purchase public lands and found Steubenville at Fort Steuben
October 5 Spain declares war on Britain
November 6 Empress Catherine II "The Great" dies
November 30 Courier founded at Norwich, continuing as Norwich Bulletin
December French fleet is prevented from invading Ireland at Bantry Bay by storms
December 7 John Adams (Federalist) wins presidency and Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican) becomes vice-president in the nations third presidential election
December 15 Death of Anthony Wayne at Presque Isle (Erie), PA
Amelia Simmons publishes "American Cookery" the first American cookbook
Congressional grant underwrites first road across Ohio: Zane's Trace
Incorporation of the Firelands
Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation, published by Robert Fulton in England
Grove Street Cemetery established at New Haven (grid design)
Randall scandal - Lower peninsula of Michigan; Randall charged with bribing public officials on behalf of fur traders
  "Auld Lang Syne" by Robert Burns published
  Aloys Senefelder begins experiments leading to the invention of Lithography
  William Smith, an English surveyer, first used fossils to map rocks by their stratographic order
  The first complete works of Shakespeare were published in the U.S
  The U.S. Congress authorizes the construction of Zane's Trace, a road from Wheeling (now in West Virgnia) to Limestone (now Maysville), Kentucky. It became one of the main routes traveled by westbound settlers
  Spain joined France in the war against Britain
  George Washington(Landsdowne potrait) by Gilbert Stuart
"Zoonomia, or, The Laws of Organic Life", by Erasmus Darwin prefigures the theory of evolution before grandson, Charles Darwin, formulates his theory.
  English House of Commons nearly defeats abolition
  British troops retake slave islands from French

1797
January 1 Capital of New York moves from NYC to Albany
January 26, 27 Connecticut Land Company meeting at Statehouse in Hartford
February 14 British Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent
February 23 Connecticut Land Company meeting at Statehouse in Hartford exonerates surveyors and authorizes second survey season
February 23 Connecticut Land Company appropriates $1500 to cut and layout roads leading to the Western Reserve
March 29 Treaty by Mohawks with the United States and New York State
March 4 Inauguration of Adams and Jefferson
March 15 King George III issues new copper pennies, the first mass-produced regular coins ever, and the first one-pound notes (paper money) are issued
April 3 Seth Pease leaves Lyme,CT for Western Reserve
April 5 Seth Pease arrives in Albany
April 22 Connecticut surveyors start up Mohawk River in bateaux
April 24 Connecticut surveyors pass the locks at Little Falls
May Firelands Company meets (only time) at Hartford
May - October Second season of Connecticut Land Company survey of Western Reserve
May 18 Connecticut surveyors's boats carried over Niagara portage
May 26 Connecticut Surveyors arrive at Conneaut
June Capt. John Carnes carries first cargo of pepper from Sumatra, opening American spice trade
June 3 Connecticut Surveyor David Eldridge drowns, attempting to cross Grand River
June 4 Connecticut Surveyors layout first burying ground at Cleaveland; David Eld interred
June 5 Ad for Joseph Steward's painting exhibit and Museum of Curiosities in Statehouse at Hartford.
June 24 Connecticut Surveyors encounter the Ottowa Indian Pontiok and inquire about the Portage Path
June 26 New Jersey inventor Charles Newbold gets a patent for his one-piece cast-iron plow ,but farmers fear it will poison the soil and refuse to use it
July William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge plan the Lyrical Ballads
July 9 British statesman, Edmund Burke ,dies
July 10 Adams and Trumbull Counties established in Northwest Territory (future Ohio)
July 22 Seth Pease finishes the South line of the Western Reserve
August Lucas Sullivant lays out Franklinton (later Columbus) on west side of Scioto River
August 16 Surveyor Moses Warren returns to camp after completing the last four tiers of southern towns in the Western Reserve
August 19 Surveyor Moses Warren begins running roads from Cleaveland
August 28 Joel Barlow negotiates Treaty with Tunis agreeing to higher tribute to Barbary pirates
September Treaty at Big Tree (Geneseo) New York between Massachusetts and Seneca, reserving 10 tracts (three remain)
September Malaria and Dysentery claim more lives of the Connecticut Surveyors
September 6 Dr. Griffith's "Address to the Inhabitants of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia"
September 7 The Constellation frigate of U.S. Navy launched
September 9 Timothy Dwight addresses "On the Nature of Infidel Philosophy exhibited in Two Discourses" at Yale College
September 10 Anglo-English feminst, Mary Wallstonecraft, dies
Fall

British naval forces defeat Dutch

October 3 Western Reserve survey completed Seth Pease starts back from the Cuyahoga
October 4 American peace commission arrives in Paris; XYZ Affair follows, resulting in undeclared naval war.
October 12 Connecticut Land Company sells Lorenzo Carter a lot in the City of Cleaveland at $25 an acre
October 17 A Campo-Formio between France and Austria ends war on the continent
October 21 U.S.S. Constitution launched at Boston
October 22 First parachute jump from a balloon
October 27 Napoleon terminates the war against Austria leaving France at war only with England
November 13 Samuel Taylor Coleridge begins to write "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
December 17 Birth of Joseph Henry in Albany, NY
Joseph Ellicott begins survey of Holland Purchase lands in Western New York and Pennsylvania.
The "Friendship" launched at Salem
Land companies appeal to the Gen'l Assembly to create the Western Reserve as a county of Connecticut; they never do
Connecticut Land Company rejects claims of heirs of Samuel Holden Parsons to Salt Springs tract
Michikinikwa (Little Turtle) meets George Washington in Philadelphia
American, Thompson designs the vaccum bottle
Talleyrand becomes French Foreign Minister. France order seizure of all neutral ships carrying British goods
British defeat Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, Portugal
Haydn composes the Emperor Quarter
Olaudah Equiano, author of a widely published autobiography dies
"A Charge Delivered to the African Lodge", at Menotomy, by Prince Hall
A new map of North America appears in The American Gazetter published by Jedidiah Morse
The first American Lutheran Seminary, Hartwick, was founded in New York City
English surveyor David Thompson left the Hudson's Bay Company for the North West Company and began survey to satisfy the requirements of Jay's Treaty
Haydn composes "The Creation" modeled after John Milton's "Paradise Lost"


New York State history buffs will want to check out these comprehensive timelines:

  • 1795-1799
  • 1800-1804

    Also check out a Cleveland Bicentennial Timeline.


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